In 1958, the autograph of the Mozart Requiem was on display at the World's Fair in Brussels. Someone
gained access to the manuscript and tore off the bottom right-hand corner to Quam olim D: C:, an
instruction that the Quam olim fugue was to be repeated da capo. The fragment has never been found.
Requiem K. 626 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Introitus
Requiem Aeternam
Kyrie
Sequenz
Dies irae
Tuba mirum
Rex tremendae
Recordare
Confutatis
Lacrymosa
Offertorium
Domine Jesu
Hostias
Sanctus
Sanctus
Benedictus
Agnus Dei
Communio
Lux aeterna
Cum sanctis
(Duration: +/-48 minutes)
The Introitus-Requiem Aeternam opens, with a tender orchestral introduction followed by a vocal fugue. A soprano solo sings "Te decet hymnus in Sion et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem" and the choir returns with the opening fugue, this time with a countersubject pairing with the subject, entries piling one atop the other, and foreshadowing the double fugue to come in the Kyrie that follows.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine.
et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Te decet hymnus in Sion
et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem.
Exaudi orationem meam.
Ad to omnis caro veniet.
Eternal rest grant them, Lord.
And let perpetual light shine on them.
Sung praise honors you in Zion
And a votive offering will be given you
in Jerusalem.
Hear my prayer.
To you all flesh will come.
Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison.
Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison is a phrase of the original Greek Christian mass that was
preserved in the Latin translation when that language became dominant. The
form of ancient Greek called Koine "common" was the lingua franca of the eastern
Mediterranean in Jesus's day, and was the language of the New Testament.
Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison
Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.
Dies Irae
The text offers apocalyptic revelations about Judgment Day, and Mozart gives
it a typically passionate, thunderous setting, full of the awe and dread of the day
when the dead are to rise from their graves and face judgment by Christ, who
will return to earth to separate the blessed from the accursed. This is not Christ
as merciful Lamb, but in his apocalyptic aspect as severe and powerful judge.
The urgent, galloping tempo brings the day closer and closer. The basses and
tenors evoke earthquake-like tremors, with quantus tremor est futurus. Throughout
the Requiem the tenors and basses depict hell and damnation with thunderingforte
passages, while the women make a sweetly angelic piano contrast.
In early Christian thought saeclum meant the current age of the world, which
would come to an end with the Apocalypse and be followed by a new age. It
can be translated as "age" or "world." The Sybil was a pagan Roman oracular
priestess.
Dies irae, dies illa
solvet saeclum in favilla
teste David cum Sybilla.
Quantus tremor est futurus
quando iudex est venturus
cuncta stricte discussurus.
The day of wrath, that day,
will dissolve the world in ashes
As witness David and the Sybil.
What a great trembling there will be
when the judge will come
to shatter each and every thing.
Tuba Mirum
The Tuba mirum, the "trumpet sending out wondrous sound," is the first of three
solo movements interpolated between the choral movements. It opens with a
special appearance of the tenor trombone as soloist, making a quintet with the
four solo voices. Its solemn fanfare is the horn that will sound on Judgment Day
to summon all creatures, living and dead. The soprano speaks in the first person,
"I", asking how she can answer the judge, and what patron she can find to plead
her case—a standard practice in Roman law.
Tuba mirum spargens sonum
per sepulcra regionum,
coget omnes ante thronum.
The trumpet, streaming out its
wondrous sound
through the sepulchers of all regions
compels all before the throne.
Mors stupebit et natura,
cum resurget creatura,
judicanti responsura.
Death and nature alike will be astounded
when all creation rises again
to answer to the judge.
Liber scnptus proferetur
in quo totum continetur,
unde mundusjudicetur.
A written book will be brought forth
in which all is contained,
whence the world will be judged.
judex ergo cum sedebit,
quidquid latet apparebit,
nil inultum remanebit.
Therefore when the judge will sit,
whatever is hidden will appear,
and nothing will remain unavenged.
Quid sum miser tunc dicturus?
quem patronum rogaturus,
cum vixjustus sit securus?
What then am I, a wretch, to say?
what legal patron shall I ask for,
when even the just man is hardly safe?
Rex Tremendae
This movement's text follows a common ancient prayer pattern that begins by invoking the deity and moves on to make a request. Mozart gives the invocation all the might and splendor he can muster in Rex tremendae majestatis, moves to a more measured but still splendid mood in qui salvandos, salvas gratis, and, typically, makes a sudden transition to plaintive pianissimo with the achingly personal
request salvame.
Tremendae means "who must be trembled before."
Pietatis, from the noun pietas, connotes "piety" in the sense of duty or doing the right thing, as well as a feeling for what man and deity owe to each other.
Rex tremendae majestatis
qui salvandos salvas gratis.
Salvame, fins pietatis.
King of awesome majesty,
those who are to be saved you save for free.
Save me, fount of piety.
Recordare
Both the the Recordare and the Benedictus seem to come straight from the opera stage:
the back-and-forth between soloists, in duet, in trio, in quartet, capture the very
human drama of Figaro, or Giovanni, or Flute: sweet, insistent; docile, assertive;
unsure, convinced... Mozart was a master at capturing the essence of human
contradiction.
He brings this very human tone to the hefty text of another prayer, directed to
Jesus at the beginning and shifting to God (Deus) toward the end; pie ("pious")
reminds Jesus of his duty to the speakers. In asking for personal absolution, the
voices explicitly link Jesus's sacrifice to their own salvation. The last verse refers
to separating the sheep (the blessed) from the goats (the damned).
Recordare, jesu pie,
quod sum causa tuae viae;
ne me perdas illa die.
Remember, pious Jesus,
that I am the reason for your path;
do not forsake me on that day.
Quaerens me, sedisti lassus,
redemisti crucem passus;
tantus labor non sit cassus.
In seeking me, you sat down exhausted,
you redeemed me by suffering the cross;
do not let such great labor be in vain.
justejudex ultionis,
donum fac remissions
ante diem rations.
Just judge of retribution,
grant the gift of remission
before the day of reckoning.
Ingemisco tamquam reus;
culpa rubet vultus meus;
supplicanti parce, Deus.
I groan as a guilty man;
guilt reddens my face;
spare your suppliant, God.
Qui Mariam absolvisti
et latronem exaudisti,
mihi quoque seem dedisti.
You who absolved Mary
and listened to the thief;
to me also you have given hope.
Preces meae non sunt dignae,
sed tu, bonus, fac benign,
ne perenni cremer igne.
My prayers are not worthy,
but you, who are good, be gracious,
lest I be consumed in the eternal fire.
Inter oyes locum praesta,
et ab haedis me sequestra,
statuens in parte dextra.
Make a place for me among the sheep,
and keep me apart from the goats,
standing at your right hand.
The tenors' and basses' layered entries capture the powerful struggles of the damned (maledictis) in a thunderous, dissonant fugue, and the women strike a contrasting ethereal note with voca me cum benedictis. They are the voices not of angels, but of the lucky blessed who will go to heaven, as opposed to the maledictis.
At oro supplex, the men and women join in a reflective, deeply felt prayer for God's attention to their individual deaths (meifinis). In these moments, one hears Mozart voicing his own fear of impending death.
Confutatis
Confutatis maledictis,
flammis acribus addictis,
voca me cum benedictis.
Oro supplex et acclinis,
cor contritum quasi cinis.
Gere curam mei finis.
When the damned are utterly confounded,
enslaved to the bitter flames,
summon me with the blessed.
Supplicating I pray on bent knees,
my heart contrite as ashes.
Take care of my end.
Lacyrmosa
This seventh movement, whose title literally means "of tears," stands at the center of the Requiem.
The opening lines, the last Mozart composed as he lay on his deathbed, apply the moving, delicate tone usually associated with the Requiem's most personal prayers to the mighty rhetoric of Judgment Day.
Coming just where we might expect more thundering bass, the juxtaposition of plaintive mood with the
imagery of widespread doom is unexpected and masterful. The delicate mood
ebbs and swells to echo the fateful brass theme of the Kyrie's opening lines.
Lacrymosa dies illa,
qua resurget ex favilla
judicandus homo reus.
Huic ergo parce, Deus, pie jesu Domine!
Dona eis requiem! Amen!
Tearful that day will be,
when man will rise from the ashes
to be judged as a defendant.
So spare him, God, pious Jesus Lord!
Give them rest! Amen!
Domine Jesu
This prayer invokes Christ and makes several requests on behalf of the souls of the faithful, without the pianissimo pathos of the more personal requests for salvation of self. There is a spectacular example of Mozart's tone-painting in the fugue at ne absorbeat eas Tartarus, where the repeated, falling ne cadant motif evokes a discordant multiplicity of souls cascading downward to hell.
It is followed by a powerful and insistent reminder to God, "You promised this to Abraham."
Tartarus is the Roman concept of hell, a place of eternal of punishment deep
beneath Hades, where the souls of the ordinary dead lead a wispy, gloomy
existence. "
Free [the souls] from the lion's mouth" evokes the early Christian
martyrs who met their end in Roman gladiatorial arenas; the lion's mouth is a
metaphor for hell.
Domine Jesu Christe, rex gloriae,
libera animas omnium fidelium defunctorum
Lord Jesus Christ, king of glory,
free the souls of all the faithful dead
de poems inferni
et de profundo lacu!
from the punishments of hell
and from the deep lake!
Libera eas de ore leonis!
Ne absorbeat eas Tartarus
ne cadant in obscurum
Free them from the lion's mouth!
Let Tartarus not swallow them
nor let them fall into darkness
sed signifer sanctus Michael
repraesentet eas in lucem sanctam,
but let the standard-bearer holy Michael
represent them in the holy light,
quam olim Abraham promisisti et semini ejus.
which you once promised to Abraham
and his seed.
Hostias
This movement makes requests for specific souls commemorated in the Mass, "those souls whose remembrance we make today."
A hostia is a sacrificial animal. Before the Romans destroyed Herod's Temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D., animal sacrifices such as sheep were offered in the temple's sanctuary as a basic religious act, comparable to contemporary practices in cultures throughout the Mediterranean.
Other sacrifices included grain, wine and incense.
This invokes the very ancient principle of giving a god something in exchange for his granting your request.
Hostias et preces tibi, Domine!
Sacrifices and prayers to you, Lord!
Laudis offerimus to suscipe pro
animabus illis
quarum hodie memoriam facimus!
Take up the praises we offer you for those souls
whose remembrance we make today!
Fac eas, Domine, de morte transire ad vitam.
quam ohm Abrahae promisisti et semini ejus.
Lord, make them cross over from death to life.
which you once promised to Abraham and his seed.
Sanctus
Sabaoth is a Latinized spelling of Hebrew kevaot, "armies" or "hosts."
Dominus Deus Sabaoth is a Latinization of a Hebrew title of God, Adonai Yahweh Tzevaot, "Lord God of Hosts."
Likewise, hosanna is a Latinization of hoshana, a Hebrew and Aramaic expression that means "save, I pray," which became a standard liturgical term of praise.
Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus
Dominus Deus Sabaoth!
Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Hosts!
Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua.
The heavens and earth are filled with your glory.
Benedictus
The four solo voices gracefully continue the simple, traditional phrases of praise
begun in the Sanctus. As in the Recordare, the influence of the opera stage can be clearly heard.
Benedictus qui vent in nomine Domini.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Osanna in excelsis.
Hosanna in the highest.
Agnus Dei
The Agnus Dei invokes Christ in his aspect as the (sacrificial) Lamb of God and asks again for eternal rest for the souls of the righteous. Sempiternam, a Latin compound of semper ("always") and aeternus ("eternal"), is appropriately long- drawn-out. The lux aeterna section, introduced by the solo soprano, reiterates the opening fugue of the Kyrie, bringing the piece full circle.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi,
Lamb of God, you who take away the sins of the world,
Dona eis requiem sempiternam.
Grant them eternal rest.
Lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine!
Let eternal light shine on them, Lord!
cum sanctis tuis in aeternum quia pius es.
with your holy ones in eternity since you are pious.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine,
Grant them eternal rest, Lord.
et lux petpetua luceat eis.
and let perpetual light shine on them.
Notes Shulamit Hoffmann and Amy Jervis © 2011 and 2024
Comments